Verstappen is in expansive and illuminating form throughout our conversation. And he’s especially enlightening on the topic that dominated two key races in Austin and Mexico last month.
Norris was the driver who ended up penalised in their battle for the lead in Texas but many of the other drivers felt Verstappen’s defensive tactics were beyond the pale.
It led to a talk in Mexico between the drivers and governing body the FIA. The upshot was an agreement that the rules be changed in a manner that seemed directed specifically at Verstappen, who for some time has employed a defensive tactic in which he holds the inside and forces a rival off track on the exit of the corner. A dive-bomb defence, some call it.
Usually reluctant to discuss tactics, now he opens up.
Did he feel like he was being singled out?
“Honestly, even if they would have done or did, first of all I don’t care because I drive to what I think is possible and what is allowed in the rules,” Verstappen says. “And if the rules are written like that, I will use the rules.
“If that would have happened to me the other way around, I don’t think I would have been the person to complain so hard because I would just think, ‘OK, if that’s the rules, that’s how we do it’ instead of screaming that we need to change the rules.”
The rule with which he complied – and which many of his rivals want changed – says that if the driver on the inside is ahead at the apex of the corner, he does not have to leave space for the driver on the outside on the exit.
Verstappen says he does not like the rule either but also admits he would not ever want to give someone room on the outside of a corner.
“Well, me personally, I don’t race like that,” he says and chuckles. “When I race with someone, he will not be able to overtake me around the outside. That’s how I grew up racing.
“Some drivers are just a bit more passive in racing, that’s just how they are. And I know that in F1 I can’t hang around the outside because they will push me off. It’s a racing instinct.”
So how is someone expected to try to overtake him?
“It depends on the track layout,” Verstappen says, echoing the views of other drivers that expansive asphalt run-off areas lead to this sort of racing because there is no penalty for going off track.
“Of course when the track is naturally the limit, no-one tries to go around the outside because they know that, so you then try to go for the cut-back or set yourself up in a different way.”
